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Mauser EW 141, the mistery gun.

This is definately the most unknow of the german weapon used in armor vehicles.

Some sources named this as a 20 mm weapon, some others as a 13 mm machinegun. Both are wrong.

The EW 141 derivated from the experimental heavy fast firing machinegun MG 141 ,as his predecessor the EW 141 is not a 13mm or 20 weapon but it use a 7,92x95 round from the standar antitank rifles Pzb 38/39.

His EW abreviature goes for EinbauWaffe, emplacement gun, since it was designed to be instaled in a single place turret for light tanks/armored cars. The EW 141 is a semi-automatic, belt feed, quick change heavy barrel rifle. It was no capable to fire in full automatic mode.

The design of the EW 141 was completed in 1940 and 5 of these weapon were manufactured before the end the year.
35 were manufactured in 1941 and the rest 20 in 1942.

Despite it shorts numbers it cannot be considered as a experimental weapon since it enterered in action, was used by light panzer against the allies in the days after the D-day invation.

EW "Ersatzlauf" (replacement barrel") inside the hull of a VK 601/panzer 1 ausf C. This is obviously a production weapon, it had two knuckled sections and a more conical shape in the threaded section.

The EW 141 derivated from the experimental heavy fast firing machinegun MG 141 ,as his predecessor the EW 141 is not a 13mm or 20 weapon but it use a 7,92x95 round from the standar antitank rifles Pzb 38/39.

Thanks very much for posting this. I'm not quite sure from your post whether the EW 141 came before or after the MG 141.

After the invation of the USSR the german army encountered two things that altered his perception about the antitank rifles.
The fist were the new generation of russian tanks that inmediatly made the 8 mm calibres rifles and machineguns extremely inefective ( actually it wasnt the first time, the pzb 38 & 39 had already troubles battling the british armor)

The second one was the wide spread use of antitank rifles by the soviets those rifles used a high speed 14,5 mm bullet that completely dwarfed the german calibers.

In 1941 there was some development for a 13 mm ( based in a 13 aviation round with larger powder charge) rifle but after Barbarossa the Heeres Waffe Amt dropped the 13 mm and choosed a 15 mm instead. The program was called "Panzerb&#252;chse 243"

Gustloff M1941.

Automatics of AT rifle M.1941 was powered by rifle's back-blow (length of back-blow was 186mm). Powerful reactive-type single-chamber muzzle brake was fastened on the end of the barrel, reducing the recoil significantly. Safety flag was made on the the left side of pistol fire control handle. The rifle was magazine-feeded, and it should be noted that the receiver of box-shaped magazine was made on top side of the rifle.

The Gustloff pzb 243 used the Mauser 15x96 ammmo, but other designs used a large case, for the benefit of the lazy members I will repeat the information of the mauser round that I already posted in the Luftwaffe cannons and Mg topic.

The company Berlin-Suhler Waffen- und Fahrzeugwerke Simson & Co, was a multipurpose industrial firm based in town of Suhl.
His production was devoted to the manufacture of two strokes motorbikes, hunting shotguns and pistols.

In 1936 was expropiated by the German Goverment and in 1939 was handed over to Gustloff werek as a subsidiary.

The BSW technicians also compete in the design of a 15 mm antitank weapon for the german infantry, in early 1942 the gun was comleted.

His design had a very obvious relation with Gustloff, It was larger variant of PzB.38, but designed to use 15x95 'Mauser' cartridge made for high-caliber MG.151. Exactly as AT rifle PzB-38, BSW mod. 1 rifle was single-round mechanical weapon with back-blow barrel during shot.

during shot. Anti-back-blow device consisted of spiral spring which was put on the barrel. Barrel was shielded by stamper metal sheet.

Barrel locking was achieved by semi-auto vertical wedge breechblock. Reloading of the breech was triggered by a lever, made as pistol fire control handle. After the shot the barrel recoiled, the chamber was opened and the used cartrigded ejected, at the same time the rifle is cocked and ready to accept a fresh cartrigde.

Safety gear consisted of two devices: first - flag-type - was made on the right side of rifle's body, and second turned on when rifle's butt was folded down; folded butt decreased rifle length in stowed position in the same time. While using powerful cartridge, the weapon was compact and light enough, according to HWaA demands.

The heavy recoil was dampened in about 40 &#37; by a large muzzle brake wich deviated a big portion of gasses backwards after the shot, the problem was the large amount of dust elevated by the muzzle blast if the gun was shot in a prone emplacement .

With 15kg mass BSW mod.1 rifle had overall length of 1430mm and barrel length of 838mm.

In 1939 the technician of Reinhmetall sought to test a improved armor-breaking machinegun using the aeronautical MG 131 as a base with a improve velocity bullet.

In order to increase the muzzle speed the normal 13 mm projectile was discarded and the case necked down to accept a 7,92mm bullet.

As result of this the overall lenght of the case was increased to 82mm, and the muzzle speed impelled to the lighter projectile was 1150 m/s, roughly less that the Patrone 318 antitank round used by the army.

7,92 x 82 cartrigde with armor piercing bullets.

Just a handful of the MG 131/8 were manufactured and few used in actual combat.

Sorry but no, actually the sources doesnt not indicates if was used by the Luftwaffe or the Heer, my stimate is that the MG 131 /8 was used by the german Air Force betwen 1939-41, mostly because the headstamps.

Given the limited efficience of the 8 mm Patrone 318 in the mid war years it was decide to convert many of remaining Pzb 39s in grenade launching rifles. That means the way to defeat armor became the hollow charge grenades instead the kinetic energy, hard core bullets.

The grenade was frontally loading while the chamber was loaded with a special blank cartrigde for projection purposes (treisspatrone). The rifle could also launch the standar explosive, marking or training grenades also used by the K-98K.

According to the grenade weight it muzzle velocity might vary between 100-125 mps, its recoil is noted as "unpleasant".